Random Musings

Arizona Governor, Jan “Eva Braun” Brewer has signed an elections bill that basically wipes out Libertarian and other third-party candidates, because it requires that they collect a practically unattainable number of signatures to be placed on the ballot in Arizona. For example, Green Party candidates would actually have to collect more signatures than they have party members.

That’s Jan Brewer, effectively saying that certain people in Arizona do not have the right to run for office. Maybe she’s less Eva and more Adolf?

I think everyone has a doppelganger—German for look-alike—and some people try make themselves look like someone else. I mean, women have done the Farrah hairstyle, and then the Rachel; people dress like celebrities, change their makeup like celebrities, but for most of us, it’s just a thang.

Not so for one Nicholas Ryan, a 32-year-old aspiring actor from New Jersey, who has undergone extensive cosmetic procedures so he can look like Ryan Gosling. In a two hour surgery, he underwent $5,000 worth of Botox and filler injections to make his face look like Gosling. His temples were filled out, his brow was Botoxed; his cheeks were injected with fillers to make them less hollow; his laugh lines were filled, too. And his entire jaw was rebuilt. He hopes the procedures will help him hit the big time in Hollywood—as well as make him a hit with the ladies.

Um, Nicholas? One thing, hon? If a movie producer or director wants Ryan Gosling, wouldn’t they just hire Ryan Gosling? Especially given that even after the 5K you spent, you don’t even look like Ryan’s long lost cousin, Jaime Gosling.

I like this story.

The mayor of Vicco, Kentucky, Johnny Cummings, has won special recognition from the state's Commission on Human Rights.

The commission said it honored Cummings with the Kentucky Unbridled Spirit for Justice Award for his efforts to create local LGBT civil-rights protections in his community. Vicco gained national fame last winter for adopting an LGBT-rights ordinance. Vicco is the fourth Kentucky community to pass an LGBT-rights ordinance and the first rural town to do so.

Way to go, Vicco, and way to go Mayor Cummings.

James Gandolfini died yesterday and the whole world seems to have come to a stop.

Now, I have nothing against Gandolfini, and am sorry for his family having to endure the death of a husband and father, but this is the big news story this morning?

Wildfires are taking people’s homes out West and we’re gonna spend fifteen minutes on GMA sitting in a New Jersey diner talking about an actor who passed away?

If you’ve ever wondered why we get nothing done in this country, it’s because we come to a halt when a TV actor dies, but keep on moving when people lose their homes.

Just sayin’. And before anyone gets all pissy about me denigrating this actor, let me say again, I’m sorry to his family for their loss, but this is not, and should not be, the big news story of the day.

Proponents of marriage equality have a new victory to toast with more and more wineries coming out in support of the cause.

Stein Family Wines, for example, will donate $1 to the nonprofit Freedom to Marry for every purchase of its wonderfully named Same-Sex Meritage, a Bordeaux-style red that blends notes of advocacy with a witty title. 

Stand Tall Wine Co. donates 1% of its proceeds of the sales of its Generic Pinot Noir to the Napa LGBTQ Project, while one of the largest labels, Barefoot Wine & Bubble, has been donating to LGBT organizations for 25 years.

Biogio Cry & Estate Wines, a New York-based company, has created Égalité, a sparkling wine from Burgundy whose name translates to “Equality” and has pledged $1,000 donations  to groups like GLSEN [Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network], the Trevor Project, and the Ali Forney Center, and hopes that same-sex brides and grooms will raise a glass of their bubbly at their weddings.

And many wineries are also creating special weekend visits for the LGBT community. Out in the Vineyard, a company that curates wine events for LGBT travelers, is hosting the Gay Wine Weekend 2013 where visitors will have the opportunity to celebrate Pride Month with tastings and tours of 10 of the leading vineyards of the Sonoma Valley, with proceeds benefiting the Face-to-Face AIDS Project.

Wine and LGBT rights. It's a good blend.

I like me some Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

In addition to making some rather interesting movie choices--from 50/50 to Inception to Batman to Looper to Premium Rush--he is also quite a handsome lad.

Just sayin'.

And this one kills me …. Down there in Texas, Congressman, and rabidly anti-LGBT Republican—it kinda goes hand-in-hand in Texas—Ralph Hall showed up at an event last week, mingling with other guests, making small talk, enjoying the food and drink. But, apparently, Hall had no idea it was an LGBT event for the Victory Fund.

As Astro might say, Ruh roh.

Hall and his staffers were under the impression that they were attending an event for a fellow congressman, an event scheduled for that same day but in a different location. After being welcomed into the event and offered refreshments, Hall inquired about the congressman whom he was there to support and after being told it was a Big Old Queer Party, Hall quickly made his exit, presumably after using the men’s room to wash off The Gay.

Good news …. Four-time Olympic gold medalist and LGBT activist Greg Louganis is getting married to Johnny Chaillot, his longtime partner.

"I finally met my soul mate – the more I fall in love with Johnny, the more I fall in love with myself. This is what the universe had in store for both of us."—Greg Louganis

Congrats to both of them!

Just because ..... Joe Manganiello on a raft, in a pool is what I would call a wet dream in every sense of the word.

Again .... Just sayin'.

Paula Deen is being sued by Lisa Jackson, a former manager of one of her restaurants, who claims Deen’s brother, Bubba—and I’m’a just leave that there—Hiers sexually assaulted her, but since the release of Deen’s deposition that case has become all about Deen’s use of the n-word.

Deen doesn’t deny these allegations at all, and was very open about her use of the n word and dressing waiters as slaves in plantation-themed restaurants. Here are some excerpts of her deposition from The Huffington Post:

Paula Deen on her use of the n-word:

Lawyer: Have you ever used the N-word yourself?

Deen: Yes, of course.

Lawyer: Okay. In what context?

Deen: Well, it was probably when a black man burst into the bank that I was working at and put a gun to my head.

Lawyer: Okay. Well, did you use the N-word to him as he pointed a gun in your head at your face?

Deen: Absolutely not.

Lawyer: Well, then, when did you use it?

Deen: Probably in telling my husband.

Lawyer: Okay. Have you used it since then?

Deen: I’m sure I have, but it’s been a very long time. Paula Deen on her brother sexually assaulting a woman:

Lawyer: Are you aware of Mr. Hiers admitting that he engaged in racially and sexually inappropriate behavior in the workplace?

Deen: I guess.

Lawyer: Okay. Well, have you done anything about what you heard him admit to doing?

Deen: My brother and I have had conversations. My brother is not a bad person. Do humans behave inappropriately? At times, yes. I don’t know one person that has not. My brother is a good man. Have we told jokes? Have we said things that we should not have said, that — yes, we all have. We all have done that, every one of us.

Paula Deen on a plantation-style wedding for her brother:

Lawyer: Do you recall using the words “really southern plantation wedding”?

Deen: Yes, I did say I would love for Bubba to experience a very southern style wedding, and we did that. We did that.

Lawyer: Okay. You would love for him to experience a southern style plantation wedding?

Deen: Yes.

Lawyer: That’s what you said?

Deen: Well, something like that, yes. And -–

Lawyer: Is there any possibility, in your mind, that you slipped and used the word “n—-r”?

Deen: No, because that’s not what these men were. They were professional black men doing a fabulous job.

Lawyer: Why did that make it a -– if you would have had servers like that, why would that have made it a really southern plantation wedding?

Deen: Well, it –- to me, of course I’m old but I ain’t that old, I didn’t live back in those days but I’ve seen the pictures, and the pictures that I’ve seen, that restaurant represented a certain era in America.

Lawyer: Okay. What era in America are you referring to?

Deen: Well, I don’t know. After the Civil War, during the Civil War, before the Civil War.

Lawyer: Right. Back in an era where there were middle-aged black men waiting on white people.

Deen: Well, it was not only black men, it was black women.

Lawyer: Sure. And before the Civil War –- before the Civil War, those black men and women who were waiting on white people were slaves, right?

Deen: Yes, I would say that they were slaves.

Lawyer: Okay.

Deen: But I did not mean anything derogatory by saying that I loved their look and their professionalism.

Lawyer: And when you described it [the restaurant] to Miss Jackson [...] Do you know what word you used to identify their race? [...] Black or African-American?

Deen: Black. I would use the word black. I don’t usually use African-Americans. I try to go along with whatever the black race is wanting to call themselves at each given time.

Wow. She just digs in deeper.

Now I get that times have changed, and they certainly have since Paula Deen was a child, but her use of the n-word today is quite upsetting. And her notion that the ‘black waiters doing a fabulous job’ don’t count as an n-word, is equally troubling.

And this last line of hers, “I try to go along with whatever the black race is wanting to call themselves at each given time” is the most troubling of all.

Now, does her use of the n-word, or her backwards, moronic, racially-tinged opinions have anything to do with the case? Not really. If Deen has used, and continues to use, racist epithets, it has no bearing on whether or not her brother sexually assaulted one of her managers, but it does give us a glimpse into the mind of Paula Deen, and that doesn’t look very pretty.

Y'all know I ain't no fan of Find-Em-Date-Em-Dump-Em-Write-A-Song-About-Em Taylor Swift, but I gotta give the old gal props for her Tweet this week after the birth of Reality Show Whore and Egotistical Rapper's spawn: